In the production of polyvinyl alcohol, methyl acetate is typically produced as a by-product. In order to produce polyvinyl alcohol at a reasonable cost, it is necessary to recover acetic acid and methanol from the methyl acetate so produced. This is typically done by the hydrolysis of methyl acetate with water to produce a mixture of methyl acetate, methanol, acetic acid and water, which mixture is subsequently separated to isolate the acetic acid and methanol. Effort has long been directed toward the improvement of the efficiency of this reaction and the subsequent separation. Since the hydrolysis process is an equilibrium reaction, it can be driven to greater acetic acid production by the addition of water. However, it is also desirable to keep the concentration of water to a minimum, since any water added to the system must later be removed from the reaction products. This removal is generally carried out by a distillation process in which any added volume increases the energy consumption.